sports
Kozloff Helps Huntington
Woods Earn National
Running Honor
STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
E
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38
October 12 • 2017
jn
d Kozloff loves running and
Huntington Woods, where he
has lived in the same home
since 1971.
So, he’s particularly proud to say
Huntington Woods has earned a
Runner Friendly
Community designa-
tion from the Road
Runners Club of
America (RCCA), the
largest running club in
the United States with
1,500 affiliated clubs
and 200,000 members.
The RCCA made
the announcement
last month, naming
Huntington Woods
one of eight cities
across the nation to
Ed Kozloff
receive the designa-
tion for 2017.
“It’s a great honor for the city,”
said Kozloff, who prepared the city’s
application for the award along with
Huntington Woods resident Alex
Cooper.
With sidewalks on 99 percent of
streets, Americans with Disabilities
Act-compliant ramps in 99 percent
of intersections, running tracks at
Burton Elementary School and Burton
Community Park, and the ability to
run on every street, a total of 25 miles,
without crossing a major intersection,
it’s easy to see why Huntington Woods
received the honor.
“Plus, we have great support from
our police department and other city
departments,” Kozloff said.
Huntington Woods has been the
site or a portion of the site of 150 road
races since 1980 including two his-
toric races, both directed by Kozloff
through the Motor City Striders, of
which he’s been president since 1975.
The largest first-time road race
in state history was the 5K Run the
Reuther held Dec. 10, 1989, on a new
stretch of Interstate 696 before it
opened to vehicles.
About 5,000 participants ran on the
freeway between Woodward Avenue
and Coolidge Highway.
Kozloff was race director for
Detroit’s Susan G. Komen Race for
the Cure from 1992-2016. There
were more 30,000 participants in the
Komen event at the Detroit Zoo in
2000, which remains the record for the
largest road race in the state.
“I remember we bused people to the
zoo from Hazel Park Raceway,” Kozloff
said.
Also named a 2017 Runner
Friendly Community by the RCCA
were Holland, Mich., Frederick, Md.,
Golden, Colo., Ithaca, N.Y., Memphis,
Tenn., Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.,
and Sheboygan, Wis.
Kozloff himself earned
an honor from the RCCA
last winter when the orga-
nization held its national
awards reception and
banquet in Detroit.
He received a
President’s Award for his
dedication and service to
the running community.
Kozloff ’s tenure as
Motor City Striders
president — 42 years — is
probably the longest of
any RRCA-affiliated club.
He grew the club from
a handful of members in the 1970s to
one of the six-largest running clubs in
the country in the 1980s and 1990s.
From 1959-2005, the Striders put on
an average of 26 races per year, includ-
ing more than 30 annually in the
1990s. It now organizes seven to eight
races a year.
Kozloff has directed more than
1,000 races, including the Motor
City Marathon and its successor, the
Detroit Free Press Marathon.
Charitable contributions from races
Kozloff has directed total more than
$40 million.
His races have two driving princi-
ples: an accurate, well-marked course
and an affordable entry fee so individ-
uals of all abilities and backgrounds
can participate in road racing.
Kozloff says road racing is undergo-
ing its third boom since he became
the Striders’ president.
The first was in the 1970s; the sec-
ond in the 1990s. Now there’s a boom
because of technology that makes it
easier than ever to organize a race and
determine results.
Gone are the days when timing was
done by hand and competitors were
given a numbered tongue depressor
with the place they finished.
Kozloff, 74, retired from Warren
Consolidated Schools in 2005 after 36
years as a health, physical education,
social studies and science teacher. He
served as coach of men’s and women’s
cross-country at Schoolcraft College
in Livonia from 2008-2015.
He and his wife, Susan, have three
children. •
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